Gum Moon: A Novel of San Francisco Chinatown

De: Jeffrey L Staley

Narrado por: Mare Trevathan

Based on events in the life of the author's wife's grandmother, Gum Moon (Cantonese for "Gold Door" or "Golden Gate") is the remarkable coming of age story of a Chinese American girl, Mei Chun Lai, who is sold in 1898 at the age of three to a cruel brothel keeper.

A sympathetic prostitute befriends Chun, but during a plague quarantine, Chun is thrust into a bewildering new world when she is rescued and placed in a home for abused and trafficked girls. The home is destroyed in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire, but Chun (aka "Maud") survives.

In an attempt to raise funds to rebuild the home, Maud and a group of seven other Chinese children embark on a cross-country singing tour. Performing for President Theodore Roosevelt is the highlight of the journey, but when the matron of the home suffers a breakdown, 13-year-old Maud must find within herself the strength and resolve to lead the band of children home.

©2018 Jeffrey L. Staley (P)2019 Jeffrey L. Staley

The words gum moon

Overall the story was good, but it sure would have been nice to have known how the woods Gum Moon applied. The term might have been used fleetingly but never enough so it could have taken hold in this novel.

Gum Moon - super!

The narrator was excellent! The storyline kept me interested all the way through. I didn't want it to end.

Okay book, terrible voice actor

Not a great book, really annoying vocal performance. Admirable attempt to integrate important historical accounts, but difficult to listen to with the overall clunky writing, strangely contemporary style dialogue and descriptive language, made worse by a pandering children’s book style vocal delivery.